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Successful repair of long-distance peripheral nerve injuries remains a challenge in the clinic. Rapid axon growth is a key to accelerate nerve regeneration. Herein, a pure silk fibroin (SF) hydrogel with a combination of high-strength and aligned microgrooved topographic structure is reported. The hydrogels exhibit excellent mechanical properties with high strength. Good biocompatibility also allows the hydrogels to support cell survival. Significantly, the hydrogel with aligned microgrooved structures enables the aligned growth of Schwann cells. Moreover, the hydrogel holds a strong capacity for promoting axon growth and guiding neurite sprouting. Thus, this micropatterned SF hydrogel would have great potential for peripheral nerve regeneration.

The performance of wound dressing determines the effect of wound closure and recovery. Water absorption and bacteriostasis of wound dressings play an important role in wound recovery and healing. In this study, an optimized chitosan wound dressing-tough chitosan dressing (TCS) with high water absorption, high bacteriostasis, and degradability was developed. The chemical structure of chitosan remained stable during the process of optimized treatment, and an increase in mechanical properties was obtained for the dressing. After optimization, the water absorption and antibacterial properties of the chitosan dressing were greatly improved, which is significantly better than sodium alginate dressing. The authors believe that TCS dressing with high hygroscopicity and high bacteriostasis has great potential application value in the field of wound recovery and healing.

Due to the complex spatial‐temporal pathophysiology of spinal cord injury (SCI), effective modulation of SCI‐specific inflammatory pathogenesis to achieve desirable therapeutic effects on functional recovery still remains challenging. Herein, cell‐enhanced photocrosslinked silk fibroin hydrogels with extracellular matrix‐mimicking cues of mechanical properties and RGD (Arg‐Gly‐Asp) signals are gelled in situ to fill the lesion site to modulate injury‐induced neuroinflammation and promote neurite regrowth after SCI. The bionic hydrogel system provides biomimetic mechanical cues to promote neuronal differentiation of neural stem/progenitor cells (NPCs) and neurite growth by activating YAP nuclear expression. Importantly, favored by the strong capacity of silk fibroin hydrogels on macrophage/microglia recruitment, NPCs encapsulated hydrogel (NPCs@SFRGD0.1) effectively promotes recruited macrophages/microglia to M2 polarization in the lesion site by releasing S100A4 and thereby remodels the inflammatory microenvironment after SCI. Moreover, NPCs@SFRGD0.1 successfully reduces glial scar formation and accelerates corticospinal tract axon regrowth to improve locomotor recovery. Overall, this work contributes to illustrating the therapeutic mechanism of NPCs development based biomaterial therapies on modulating inflammatory microenvironment and this NPCs enhanced silk fibroin hydrogel provides a promising therapeutic strategy for SCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The liver is the most complex vascular anatomy of all human organs, with extremely rich blood flow and fragile texture. Massive liver bleeding usually occurs after traumatic liver injury, causing severe systematic issues. Thus, bleeding control is critical in hindering mortality rates and complications in patients. In this study, non-compression hemostasis materials based on chitosan lactate particles (CLP) were developed for handling liver bleeding after injuries. CLP showed good blood biocompatibility and antibacterial performance against S. aureus. Taking advantage of the vital capacity of CLP to promote red blood cell and platelet adhesion, CLP exhibited in vivo homeostasis properties as non-compression hemostasis materials for traumatic liver injury, both in SD rats, New Zealand rabbits, or in beagles. Whereas CLP has better hemostasis than the commercial hemostatic agent Celox™. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic‐free perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have been of rising interest due to their remarkable resistance toward long‐term thermal stress. Nevertheless, the inorganic perovskite films usually suffer from poor crystallization and high‐density defects in bulk and near/at the interfaces, which leads to significant charge recombination loss and hence inferior device performance. Herein, it is demonstrated that high‐quality CsPbI2Br perovskite films could be prepared by using 2D non‐layered materials as additives, such as In2S3 nanoflakes (Nano‐In2S3) with well‐matched lattices and unsaturated dangling bonds on the surface. In addition, it is found that the introduction of Nano‐In2S3 results in not only defect passivation but also remarkable quasi‐Fermi level splitting across the perovskite film due to its gradient doping behavior, thereby enhancing the built‐in electric field in the inverted PSCs. As a result, the optimal devices based on Nano‐In2S3:CsPbI2Br absorber and all‐inorganic interfacial layers deliver a champion power conversion efficiency of 15.17% along with excellent ambient and thermal stabilities, superior to those of the pristine devices and comparable to the best organic‐free PSCs. A novel strategy for highly efficient and stable organic‐free photovoltaics by using 2D non‐layered materials as multifunctional additives is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The library acquisition module is one of the important components of ILS (integrated library system, abbreviated as ILS as follows). However, some small, even medium sized libraries refused or hesitated to use this module for several reasons. This article focused on the discussions why the library acquisition module in ILS was so important for the library budget and purchase management, and what the benefits of using the library acquisition module in ILS were. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Easy cancer recurrence and wound infections have been clinical challenges after surgical treatment of melanoma. Herein, a silk‐inspired in situ gelation system containing methacrylated silk fibroin (SF) and chlorine e6 for improved cancer therapy with enhanced wound healing is developed. Favored by the macrophage recruitment capacity of the SF hydrogel, promising antitumor immune responses can be turned "on" via near infrared irradiation in a controllable manner to achieve combination therapy with photodynamic therapy to significantly suppress melanoma recurrence. Moreover, the effective photodynamic antibacterial activity of this bioactive system with the capacity of light‐controllable modulating macrophage phenotype promotes remarkable tissue ingrowth with hair follicle regeneration for Staphylococcus aureus infected wound healing. Thus, this multifunctional silk‐based hydrogel system, as a desirable wound dressing, provides a new platform for promising melanoma therapy and skin regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive efforts made in directional manipulation of water and oil microdroplets, challenges still remain in the ultrafast self-transportation and the rapid separation of droplets with different surface tensions due to the lack of driving force. The natural inspiration from fish medullary spines provides a potential way to realize directional oil movement by using an anisotropic surface with micropits. Herein, a fish-spine-like liquid splitter (FSLLS) is developed based on a precise 3D printing and subsequent femtosecond laser structuring. The liquid splitter enables directional transportation of various microdroplets, with the maximum velocity reaching 265.3 mm s−1. More interestingly, it can spontaneously transport liquids with the surface tension ranging from 15 to 48 mN m−1, achieving an outstanding selectivity of specific liquids. Moreover, the lower the surface tension for the liquid in the surface tension range, the faster the transport speed on the FSLLS. This feature can be attributed to the unique micro-pit structure on the FSLLS surface and its oleophilic properties. The combination of ultrafast directional transportation and peculiar selective ability makes the FSLLS achieve the pumping of microdroplets with lower surface tension. As a proof-of-concept, the separation of the mixed droplets with different surface tensions is demonstrated using the FSLLS and the scalable device. This study offers a new bionic design concept for selective microdroplet pumping devices and opens up an avenue for the separation and extraction of oil droplets in the field of multiphase separation, biomedical analysis, microfluidics, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioinspired functional structures or devices show great potential for harvesting water resources in the atmosphere. Despite the great advances made in the capture and transportation of the droplets, the efficient storage of harvested water for direct and cyclable utilization is rarely concerned towards real daily life. Inspired by the long-stem storage of water caused from the Triarrhena sacchariflora leaf sheath, a wearable fogdrop collector was developed via laser structuring and origami techniques for effectively nourishing the plants in a lower-evaporation condition. The collector shows an annular thin-wall with a superhydrophilic grooved inwall (SGI), and a circular array of spine with thorns and gradient channels (STGCs). These structural features enable the collector to capture fogdrop by STGC, and keep water inside the thin-wall for long-lasting moisture retention. Furthermore, due to the excellent flexibility and composability, multiple collectors can be easily assembled to a larger harvesting one, implying its scalability potential. The assembled devices show a higher collection efficiency and lower evaporation than the individual ones, reaching ∼8.4 mL per hour when using triple collectors. More interestingly, such devices can be directly used for the moisture retention of the fresh flower, showing water retention of more than 140 min, which is superior to the traditional watering or water spraying. This work gives a flexible design strategy of a portable scalable collector for water harvesting, and especially opens an avenue to the direct and actual utilization of the fogdrop collectors for the flower moisture retention and even agricultural irrigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moving networks (MNs) with moving base stations (BSs) provide ubiquitous and constant services to cellular devices/user equipment (UEs) in 5-th generation systems. Moving BSs are mounted on top of vehicles. To describe the randomness of the BSs, a tractable stochastic geometry model for MNs is proposed. A definition of the conditional success probability and meta distribution (MD) of the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) for MNs is proposed. The MD is used to assess the benefits of MNs. In single-tier MNs with high mobility, we determine the moments of the conditional success probability given the point process for the calculation of the MD and the mean local delay. The results show that the mean local delay is finite and the variance is reduced to 0. A closed-form approximation of the variance is proposed for general mobility levels. Using the approximated variance, we propose a beta approximation of the MD. The single-tier model is then extended to a two-tier heterogeneous MN model. Tractable expressions of the mean success probability and the variance for both the overall network and the typical UE in each tier are obtained. They reveal that moving BSs can reduce the variance among UEs while keeping the mean success probability constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has shown great promise as a medical treatment of depression. The effectiveness of TMS treatment at high frequency has been well investigated; however, low-frequency TMS in depression treatment has rarely been investigated in depression-induced cognitive deficits. Herein, this study was carried out to assess the possible modulatory role of low-frequency pulsed magnetic field (LFPMF) on reversing cognitive impairment in a model of depression induced by chronic unpredictable stress (CUS). Wistar rats were randomly allocated into four groups as follows: a control group (CON), a control applied with LFPMF (CON + LFPMF), a CUS group, and a CUS treated with LFPMF (CUS + LFPMF) group. During 8 weeks of CUS, compared to those in the CON group, animals not only gained less weight but also exhibited anhedonia, anxiety, and cognitive decline in behavioral tests. After 2-week treatment of LFPMF, a 20 mT, 1 Hz magnetic stimulation, it reversed the impairment of spatial cognition as well as hippocampal synaptic function including long-term potentiation and related protein expression. Thus, LFPMF has shown effectively improvements on depressant behavior and cognitive dysfunction in CUS rats, possibly via regulating synaptic function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ischemic/reperfusion (I/R) injury is the primary cause of acute kidney injury (AKI). Hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA), a natural compound isolated from Carthamus tinctorius L., has been found to possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. However, the protective effects and potential mechanism of HSYA on I/R-induced AKI remains unclear. In the present study, the in vitro hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) and in vivo renal I/R models were employed to investigate the renal protective effects and molecular mechanisms of HSYA on I/R-induced AKI. The present results indicated that HSYA pretreatment significantly ameliorated renal damage and dysfunction in the I/R injury mice via enhancing the antioxidant capacity and suppressing the oxidative stress injury, inflammatory response, and apoptosis. Mechanistic studies showed that HSYA could upregulate Akt/GSK-3β/Fyn-Nrf2 axis-mediated antioxidant gene expression both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, HSYA-mediated improvement in antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic effects in H/R-treated HK-2 cells was abrogated by Akt inhibitor LY294002 supplementation. In summary, the present results demonstrated that HSYA attenuated kidney oxidative stress, inflammation response, and apoptosis induced by I/R, at least in part, via activating the Akt/GSK-3β/Fyn-Nrf2 axis pathway. These findings provided evidence that HSYA may be applied as a potential therapeutic agent in the treatment of I/R induced AKI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

5G will greatly promote the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. AI technology will also empower and intelligentize 5G, build capabilities of intelligent networks, help 5G overcome various challenges in its development, and provide better services for vertical industries and mass market customers with different requirements. 5G intelligent networks are expected to have the new architectures and have the following characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulfur metabolism plays a major role in plant growth and development, environmental adaptation, and material synthesis, and the sulfate transporters are the beginning of sulfur metabolism. We identified 37 potential VcSULTR genes in the blueberry genome, encoding peptides with 534 to 766 amino acids. The genes were grouped into four subfamilies in an evolutionary analysis. The 37 putative VcSULTR proteins ranged in size from 60.03 to 83.87 kDa. These proteins were predicted to be hydrophobic and mostly localize to the plasma membrane. The VcSULTR genes were distributed on 30 chromosomes; VcSULTR3;5b and VcSULTR3;5c were the only tandemly repeated genes. The VcSULTR promoters contained cis -acting elements related to the fungal symbiosis and stress responses. The transcript levels of the VcSULTRs differed among blueberry organs and changed in response to ericoid mycorrhizal fungi and sulfate treatments. A subcellular localization analysis showed that VcSULTR2;1c localized to, and functioned in, the plasma membrane and chloroplast. The virus-induced gene knock-down of VcSULTR2;1c resulted in a significantly decreased endogenous sulfate content, and an up-regulation of genes encoding key enzymes in sulfur metabolism ( VcATPS2 and VcSiR1 ). These findings enhance our understanding of mycorrhizal-fungi-mediated sulfate transport in blueberry, and lay the foundation for further research on blueberry-mycorrhizal symbiosis.

All inorganic CsPbI 2 Br perovskite (AIP) has attracted great attention due to its excellent resistance against thermal stress as well as the remarkable capability to deliver high-voltage output. However, CsPbI 2 Br perovskite solar cells (PeSCs) still encounter critical challenges in attaining both high efficiency and mechanical stability for commercial applications. In this work, formamidine disulfide dihydrochloride (FADD) modified ZnO electron transport layer (ETL) has been developed for fabricating inverted devices on either rigid or flexible substrate. It is found that the FADD modification leads to efficient defects passivation, thereby significantly reducing charge recombination at the AIP/ETL interface. As a result, rigid PeSCs (r-PeSCs) deliver an enhanced efficiency of 16.05% and improved long-term thermal stability. Moreover, the introduced FADD can regulate the Young's modulus (or Derjaguin-Muller-Toporov (DMT) modilus) of ZnO ETL and dissipate stress concentration at the AIP/ETL interface, effectively restraining the crack generation and improving the mechanical stability of PeSCs. The flexible PeSCs (f-PeSCs) exhibit one of the best performances so far reported with excellent stability against 6000 bending cycles at a curvature radius of 5 mm. This work thus provides an effective strategy to simultaneously improve the photovoltaic performance and mechanical stability., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Peripheral nerve injury (PNI) is a neurological disorder caused by trauma that is frequently induced by accidents, war, and surgical complications, which is of global significance. The severity of the injury determines the potential for lifelong disability in patients. Artificial nerve scaffolds have been investigated as a powerful tool for promoting optimal regeneration of nerve defects. Over the past few decades, bionic scaffolds have been successfully developed to provide guidance and biological cues to facilitate Schwann cell myelination and orientated axonal growth. Numerous assessment techniques have been employed to investigate the therapeutic efficacy of nerve scaffolds in promoting the growth of Schwann cells and axons upon the bioactivities of distinct scaffolds, which have encouraged a greater understanding of the biological mechanisms involved in peripheral nerve development and regeneration. However, it is still difficult to compare the results from different labs due to the diversity of protocols and the availability of innovative technologies when evaluating the effectiveness of novel artificial scaffolds. Meanwhile, due to the complicated process of peripheral nerve regeneration, several evaluation methods are usually combined in studies on peripheral nerve repair. Herein, we have provided an overview of the evaluation methods used to study the outcomes of scaffold-based therapies for PNI in experimental animal models and especially focus on Schwann cell functions and axonal growth within the regenerated nerve., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Ling, He, Zhang, Zhao, Zhu, Tang, Li, Xu and Yang.)

Peripheral nerve injury is a clinically common injury that causes sensory dysfunction and locomotor system degeneration, which seriously affects the quality of the patients' daily life. Long gapped defects in large nerve are difficult to repair via surgery and limited donor source of autologous nerve greatly challenges the successful nerve repair by transplantation. Significantly, remarkable progress has been made in repairing the peripheral nerve injury using artificial nerve grafts and a variety of products for peripheral nerve repair have emerged been approved globally in recent years. The raw materials of these commercial products includes natural/synthetic polymers, extracellular matrix. Despite a lot of effort, the desirable functional recovery still remains great challenges in long gapped nerve defects. Thus this review discusses the recent development of tissue engineering products for peripheral nerve repair and the design of bionic grafts improving the local microenvironment for accelerating nerve regeneration against locomotor disorder, which may provide potential strategies for the repair of long gaps or thick nerve defects by multifunctional biomaterials., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Jiang, Tang, Li, Ling and Yang.)

The immune system is essential in the process of nerve repair after injury. Successful modulation of the immune response is regarded as an effective approach to improving treatment outcomes. T cells play an important role in the immune response of the nervous system, and their beneficial roles in promoting regeneration have been increasingly recognized. However, the diversity of T-cell subsets also delivers both neuroprotective and neurodegenerative functions. Therefore, this review mainly discusses the beneficial impact of T-cell subsets in the repair of both peripheral nervous system and central nervous system injuries and introduces studies on various therapies based on T-cell regulation. Further discoveries in T-cell mechanisms and multifunctional biomaterials will provide novel strategies for nerve regeneration., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Tang, Li, Huang, Zhang, Chen, Ling and Yang.)

Successful control of massive hemorrhage in deep wounds with irregular shape and low elasticity still remains great challenges in the clinic. As the wound sites are usually at risk of bacterial infection, it is necessary to design an ideal hemostatic agent with rapid hemostasis and excellent antibacterial activity. In this study, we developed a light responsive hemostatic film for effective handling of liver bleeding with promising photodynamic therapy against S. aureus onnear infrared (NIR) irradiation. Based on silk fibroin, the film exhibited desirable biocompatibility and mechanical property as a hemostat tape. Significantly, the film tape achieved excellent tissue adhesion and hemostasis in vivo within 2 min of UV exposure, which would have a great potential as a multifunctional biomedical material in the field of tissue repair such as wound healing, bone repair, and nerve regeneration., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Huang, Zhou, Li, Tang, Chen, Ge and Ling.)

Inorganic perovskite CsPbI 2 Br has advantages of excellent thermal stability and reasonable bandgap, which make it suitable for top layer of tandem solar cells. Nevertheless, solution-processed all-inorganic perovskites generally suffer from high-density defects as well as significant tensile strain near underlayer/perovskite interface, both leading to compromised device efficiency and stability. In this work, the defect density as well as interfacial tensile strain in inverted CsPbI 2 Br perovskite solar cells (PeSCs) is remarkably reduced by using a bilayer underlayer composed of dopant-free 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis(N,N-dip-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9'-spirobifluorene (Spiro-OMeTAD) and copper phthalocyanine 3,4',4″,4'″-tetrasulfonated acid tetrasodium salt (TS-CuPc) nanoparticles. As compared to control devices with pristine Spiro-OMeTAD, devices based on Spiro-OMeTAD/TS-CuPc exhibit remarkably improved photovoltaic performance and enhanced thermal/humidity stability due to the better perovskite crystallization, improved interfacial passivation, and hole-collection as well as efficient interfacial strain release. As a result, a champion efficiency of 14.85% can be achieved, which is approaching to the best reported for dopant-free and inverted all-inorganic PeSCs. The work thus provides an efficient strategy to simultaneously regulate the defects density and strain issue related to inorganic perovskites., (© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Developing coatings with multifunctional and biocompatible properties to enhance tissue wound regeneration is preferably applied clinically. Consequently, the freestanding and self-healing coatings were formed with the employment of the layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly. The coatings comprise beta-cyclodextrin-modified silk fibroin (SCD) and adamantane-modified hyaluronic acid (HAD) on the basis of the interactions between the host and the guest. The self-healing and freestanding capabilities allow the coatings to easily and repeatedly repair external mechanical damage and could be pulled off substrate. More importantly, the coatings have admirable antibacterial activity and biocompatibility. Moreover, the proliferation of cells and the myelination of Schwann cells are enhanced. Thus, we believe that the multifunctional coatings will have great potential in tissue engineering, especially for nerve regeneration.